考虑压头曲率半径和应变梯度的微压痕分析

在压头尖端曲率半径取100nm的前提下，采用Chen和Wang的应变梯度理论，对微压痕实验进行了系统的数值分析. 首先通过拟合载荷-位移实验曲线的后半段来确定材料的屈服应力和幂硬化指数值,然后用有限元方法数值模拟压痕实验，并将计算得到的整段载荷-位移曲线及硬度-位移曲线和实验结果进行了比较. 结果表明应变梯度理论所预测的计算结果和实验结果很好地符合,包括压痕深度在亚微米和微米范围内的整段曲线.     

Size effects in the conical indentation of an elasto-plastic solid

The size effect in conical indentation of an elasto-plastic solid is predicted via the Fleck and Willis formulation of strain gradient plasticity (Fleck, N.A. and Willis, J.R., 2009, A mathematical basis for strain gradient plasticity theory. Part II: tensorial plastic multiplier, J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 57, 1045–1057). The rate-dependent formulation is implemented numerically and the full-field indentation problem is analyzed via finite element calculations, for both ideally plastic behavior and dissipative hardening. The isotropic strain-gradient theory involves three material length scales, and the relative significance of these length scales upon the degree of size effect is assessed. Indentation maps are generated to summarize the sensitivity of indentation hardness to indent size, indenter geometry and material properties (such as yield strain and strain hardening index). The finite element model is also used to evaluate the pertinence of the Johnson cavity expansion model and of the Nix–Gao model, which have been extensively used to predict size effects in indentation hardness.     

Effect of large elastic strains on cavitation instability predictions for elastic–plastic solids

For an infinite solid containing a void, the cavitation instability limit is defined as the remote stress–and strain state, at which the void grows without bound, driven by the elastic energy stored in the surrounding material. Such cavitation limits have been analysed by a number of authors for metal plasticity as well as for nonlinear elastic solids. The analyses for elastic–plastic solids are here extended to consider the effect of a large initial yield strain, and it is shown how the critical stress value decays for increasing value of the yield strain. Analyses are carried out for remote hydrostatic tension as well as for more general axisymmetric remote stress field, with an initially spherical void. Different levels of strain hardening are considered.     

Determining plastic properties of a material with residual stress by using conical indentation

Instrumented indentation is a popular method for determining mechanical properties in engineering materials. However, there are several shortcomings and challenges involved with correctly interpreting the test results. We propose here a unified method for evaluating instrumented indentation testing conducted on a material that exhibits both strain hardening under yielding and which is subjected to uniform, equi-biaxial residual stresses. The proposed method is based on extensive finite element simulations that relate the parameter-space spanned by Young’s modulus, yield strength, strain hardening and residual stress, to the response from the indentation test. Based on reverse analysis, the proposed method can be used to determine two unknown quantities, such as yield strength and strain hardening. The technique involves utilizing the concept of representative strain and plural indenter-shapes.     

Indentation of a hard film on a soft substrate: Strain gradient hardening effects

The strain gradient work hardening is important in micro-indentation of bulk metals and thin metallic films, though the indentation of thin films may display very different behavior from that of bulk metals. We use the conventional theory of mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity (CMSG) to study the indentation of a hard tungsten film on soft aluminum substrate, and find good agreement with experiments. The effect of friction stress (intrinsic lattice resistance), which is important in body-center-cubic tungsten, is accounted for. We also extend CMSG to a finite deformation theory since the indentation depth in experiments can be as large as the film thickness. Contrary to indentation of bulk metals or soft metallic films on hard substrate, the micro-indentation hardness of a hard tungsten film on soft aluminum substrate decreases monotonically with the increasing depth of indentation, and it never approaches a constant (macroscopic hardness). It is also shown that the strain gradient effect in the soft aluminum substrate is insignificant, but that in the hard tungsten thin film is important in shallow indentation. The strain gradient effect in tungsten, however, disappears rapidly as the indentation depth increases because the intrinsic material length in tungsten is rather small.     

Two new expanding cavity models for indentation deformations of elastic strain-hardening materials

Two expanding cavity models (ECMs) are developed for describing indentation deformations of elastic power-law hardening and elastic linear-hardening materials. The derivations are based on two elastic–plastic solutions for internally pressurized thick-walled spherical shells of strain-hardening materials. Closed-form formulas are provided for both conical and spherical indentations, which explicitly show that for a given indenter geometry indentation hardness depends on Young’s modulus, yield stress and strain-hardening index of the indented material. The two new models reduce to Johnson’s ECM for elastic-perfectly plastic materials when the strain-hardening effect is not considered. The sample numerical results obtained using the two newly developed models reveal that the indentation hardness increases with the Young’s modulus and strain-hardening level of the indented material. For conical indentations the values of the indentation hardness are found to depend on the sharpness of the indenter: the sharper the indenter, the larger the hardness. For spherical indentations it is shown that the hardness is significantly affected by the strain-hardening level when the indented material is stiff (i.e., with a large ratio of Young’s modulus to yield stress) and/or the indentation depth is large. When the indentation depth is small such that little or no plastic deformation is induced by the spherical indenter, the hardness appears to be independent of the strain-hardening level. These predicted trends for spherical indentations are in fairly good agreement with the recent finite element results of Park and Pharr.     

An expanding cavity model incorporating strain-hardening and indentation size effects

An expanding cavity model (ECM) for determining indentation hardness of elastic strain-hardening plastic materials is developed. The derivation is based on a strain gradient plasticity solution for an internally pressurized thick-walled spherical shell of an elastic power-law hardening material. Closed-form formulas are provided for both conical and spherical indentations. The indentation radius enters these formulas with its own dimensional identity, unlike that in classical plasticity based ECMs where indentation geometrical parameters appear only in non-dimensional forms. As a result, the newly developed ECM can capture the indentation size effect. The formulas explicitly show that indentation hardness depends on Young’s modulus, yield stress, strain-hardening exponent and strain gradient coefficient of the indented material as well as on the geometry of the indenter. The new model reduces to existing classical plasticity based ECMs (including Johnson’s ECM for elastic–perfectly plastic materials) when the strain gradient effect is not considered. The numerical results obtained using the newly developed model reveal that the hardness is indeed indentation size dependent when the indentation radius is very small: the smaller the indentation, the larger the hardness. Also, the indentation hardness is seen to increase with the Young’s modulus and strain-hardening level of the indented material for both conical and spherical indentations. The strain-hardening effect on the hardness is observed to be significant for materials having strong strain-hardening characteristics. In addition, it is found that the indentation hardness increases with decreasing cone angle of the conical indenter or decreasing radius of the spherical indenter. These trends agree with existing experimental observations and model predictions.     

A new yield function and a hydrostatic stress-controlled void nucleation model for porous solids with pressure-sensitive matrices

A macroscopic yield function for porous solids with pressure-sensitive matrices modeled by Coulomb's yield function was obtained by generalizing Gurson's yield function with consideration of the hydrostatic yield stress of a spherical thick-walled shell and by fitting the finite element results of the yield stresses of a voided cube. The macroscopic yield function is valid for the negative hydrostatic stress as well as for the positive hydrostatic stress. From the yield function, a plastic potential function for the porous solids was derived either for plastic normality flow or for plastic non-normality flow of the pressure-sensitive matrices. In addition, void nucleation was modeled by a normal distribution function with the macroscopic hydrostatic stress regarded as a controlling stress. This set of constitutive relations was implemented into a finite element code abaqus as a user material subroutine to analyze the cavitation and the deformation behavior of a rubber-modified epoxy around a crack tip under the Mode I plane strain conditions. By comparing the cavitation zone and the plastic zone obtained in the analysis with those observed in an experiment, the mean stress and the standard deviation for the void nucleation model could be determined. The cavitation and the deformation behavior of the rubber-modified epoxy were also analyzed around notches under four-point bending. The size and shape of the cavitation zone and the plastic zone were shown to be in good agreement with those observed in an experiment.     

A new reverse analysis to determine the constitutive response of plastically graded case hardened bearing steels

A new reverse analysis is presented that determines the plastic response of both nongraded and plastically graded materials (PGMs) without the need for traditional tension or compression tests. The method utilizes the concepts of expanding cavity model for strain hardening materials, Tabor’s rule of converting Vickers hardness to flow stress, representative plastic strain induced by indentation, and finite element modeling of the macro indentation process. A unique flow curve is determined when the experimentally measured increase in micro Vickers hardness matches that predicted by the proposed method within the plastic zone of a macro Vickers indent. The method is validated for a nongraded stainless steel first and then extended to determine the gradient in flow curves of plastically graded, case-hardened M50 NiL material, a widely used bearing steel. Such knowledge of the plastic response of the case hardened region will help optimize the design of case hardened bearings with longer rolling contact fatigue life and higher thrust load capabilities.     

The role of friction on sharp indentation

Frictional effects on sharp indentation of strain hardening solids are examined in this paper. The results of finite element simulations in a wide range of solids allow us to derive two simplified equations, accounting for the influence of the friction coefficient on hardness. Comparisons between the simulations and instrumented micro-indentation experiments are undertaken to ensure the validity of the former to metallic materials. Quantitative estimates of the role of friction on the development of pileup and sinking-in around the contact boundary are also given in the paper. These results provide a physical insight into the plastic flow features of distinctly different solids brought into contact with sharp indenters. Overall, the investigation shows that the amount of pileup can be used to set the range of validity of the two hardness equations indicated above. Friction has the largest influence on the contact response of solids exhibiting considerable piling-up effects (whose parameter , see text for details), whereas materials developing moderate pileup or sinking-in are less sensitive to friction. Finally, a methodology is devised to assess the influence of the friction coefficient on mechanical properties extracted through indentation experiments.     

The plastic zone size in indentation experiments: The analogy with the expansion of a spherical cavity

This paper provides in-depth examinations of the well-known analogy between indentation experiments and the expansion of a spherical cavity. Closed-form solutions are derived for the extension of the plastic zone in perfectly plastic and strain hardening solids. The theoretical analysis takes into account the role of elastic and plastic deformations in the overall contact response, leading to accurate solutions for cavity inflation. Presently proposed analogy is based on comprehensive finite element simulations of conical, spherical and pyramidal indentation, which allow us to find a correspondence between the parameters describing the contact response and those in expanding cavity formulations. Such parametrical identification has the advantage to hold true both in expanding cavity formulations for perfectly plastic solids and in those derived herein for strain hardening solids. Attention is given to the assessment of the plastic zone along the indented surface, as well as to quantify the influence of further plastic flow induced upon load removal on the plastic zone size.     

Role of plasticity on indentation behavior: Relations between surface and subsurface responses

Surface and subsurface responses during frictionless indentation of elasto-plastic solids are investigated. Cases of monotonic and repeated loading are considered. It is shown that the role of plasticity parameters on indentation behavior cannot be well described in terms of surface response alone. It must be tied with subsurface response. In particular, the difference between the materials exhibiting isotropic hardening and that exhibiting kinematic hardening is less apparent when the force-displacement response and the deformed surface from the two are compared. Yet, it is quite apparent when subsurface response such as plastic strain, residual stress and plastic zone dimension are compared. An attempt has been made to characterize such surface and subsurface responses, for different plastic behavior, and to compare them with estimations obtained from analytical solutions.     

A plasticity model for pressure-dependent anisotropic cellular solids

The initial and subsequent yield surfaces for an anisotropic and pressure-dependent 2D stochastic cellular material, which represents solid foams, are investigated under biaxial loading using finite element analysis. Scalar measures of stress and strain, namely characteristic stress and characteristic strain, are used to describe the constitutive response of cellular material along various stress paths. The coupling between loading path and strain hardening is then investigated in characteristic stress–strain domain. The nature of the flow rule that best describes the plastic flow of cellular solid is also investigated. An incremental plasticity framework is proposed to describe the pressure-dependent plastic flow of 2D stochastic cellular solids. The proposed plasticity framework adopts the anisotropic and pressure-dependent yield function recently introduced by Alkhader and Vural [Alkhader M., Vural M., 2009a. An energy-based anisotropic yield criterion for cellular solids and validation by biaxial FE simulations. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 57(5), 871–890]. It has been shown that the proposed yield function can be simply calibrated using elastic constants and flow stresses under uniaixal loading. Comparison of stress fields predicted by continuum plasticity model to the ones obtained from FE analysis shows good agreement for the range of loading paths and strains investigated.     

The frictional sliding response of elasto-plastic materials in contact with a conical indenter

Over the past decade, many computational studies have explored the mechanics of normal indentation. Quantitative relationships have been well established between the load–displacement hysteresis response and material properties. By contrast, very few studies have investigated broad quantitative aspects of the effects of material properties, especially plastic deformation characteristics, on the frictional sliding response of metals and alloys. The response to instrumented, depth-sensing frictional sliding, hereafter referred to as a scratch test, could potentially be used for material characterization. In addition, it could reproduce a basic tribological event, such as asperity contact and deformation, at different length scales for the multi-scale modeling of wear processes. For these reasons, a comprehensive study was undertaken to investigate the effect of elasto-plastic properties, such as flow strength and strain hardening, on the response to steady-state frictional sliding. Dimensional analysis was used to define scaling variables and universal functions. The dependence of these functions on material properties was assessed through a detailed parametric study using the finite element method. The strain hardening exponent was found to have a greater influence on the scratch hardness and the pile-up height during frictional sliding than observed in frictionless normal indentation. When normalized by the penetration depth, the pile-up height can be up to three times larger in frictional sliding than in normal indentation. Furthermore, in contrast to normal indentation, sink-in is not observed during frictional sliding over the wide range of material properties examined. Finally, friction between indenter and indented material was introduced in the finite element model, and quantitative relationships were also established for the limited effects of plastic strain hardening and yield strength on the overall friction coefficient. Aspects of the predictions of computational simulations were compared with experiments on carefully selected metallic systems in which the plastic properties were systematically controlled. The level of accuracy of the predicted frictional response is also assessed by recourse to the finite element method and by comparison with experiment.     

Transition from progressive buckling to global bending of circular shells under axial impact––Part I: Experimental and numerical observations

The influence of impact velocity and material characteristics on the dynamic buckling response of circular shells subjected to axial impact loads is studied. It is shown experimentally that the critical buckling length, which marks the transition between progressive and global buckling of aluminium alloy circular tubes, is significantly influenced by the axial impact velocity. A finite element analysis is undertaken to further explore the effects of material yield stress, strain hardening and strain rate sensitivity on the transition phenomenon. It is observed that circular tubes made of ductile alloys with a high yield stress and low strain hardening characteristics have a better performance as energy absorbers than tubes made of alloys with a low yield stress and high strain hardening characteristics. Theoretical analysis of some particular features of the dynamic buckling transition is presented in Part II [International Journal of Solids and Structures (2004)].     

Local mechanical properties of the 6061-T6 aluminium weld using micro-traction and instrumented indentation

The local mechanical properties of a weld zone, in a 6061-T6 aluminium alloy subjected to the modified indirect electric arc technique have been studied. The mechanical properties of the base metal, the weld metal and the heat affected zone were determined by means of usual and instrumented indentation testing, as well as micro-traction testing. To analyse the heat input effect resulting from the welding process, the evolution of the weld zone size was evaluated by means of classical indentation under a constant applied load. The results were presented using a Vickers hardness map representation. This allows monitoring exact hardness variation while leading to the identification of the different zones of the welded joint. Instrumented indentation testing was carried out to determine the local mechanical properties, such as the yield stress, the bulk modulus and the strain-hardening exponent. Obtained results are compared to those derived from tensile tests conducted on micro-specimen cuts taken from the weld zone. It was observed that yield stress values are directly comparable for indentation and micro-traction experiments. As for the elastic properties, no comparison was possible since the bulk modulus is measured by indentation, whereas it is the Young’s modulus by tensile test. The micro-traction testing seems to be more sensitive to represent the work hardening of a material since the corresponding exponent is found to be constant by instrumented indentation.     

A study on robust indentation techniques to evaluate elastic–plastic properties of metals

Spherical indentation is studied based on numerical analysis and experiment, to develop robust testing techniques to evaluate isotropic elastic–plastic material properties of metals. The representative stress and plastic strain concept is critically investigated via finite element analysis, and some conditions for the representative values are suggested. The representative values should also be a function of material properties, not only indenter angle for sharp indenter and indentation depth for spherical indenter. The pros and cons of shallow and deep spherical indentation techniques are also discussed. For an indentation depth of 20% of an indenter diameter, the relationships between normalized indentation parameters and load–depth data are characterized, and then numerical algorithm to estimate material elastic–plastic curve is presented. From the indentation load–depth curve, the new approach provides stress–strain curve and the values of elastic modulus, yield strength, and strain-hardening exponent with an average error of less than 5%. The method is confirmed to be valid for various elastic properties of indenter. Experimental validation of the approach then is performed by using developed micro-indentation system. For the material severely disobeying power law hardening, a modified method to reduce errors of predicted material properties is contrived. It is found that our method is robust enough to get ideal power law properties, and applicable to input of more complex physics.     

Effect of Varying Test Parameters on Elastic–plastic Properties Extracted by Nanoindentation Tests

A systematic experiment was performed in an effort to investigate how the levels of certain test parameters affect the values of elastic modulus, hardness, yield stress, and strain hardening constant obtained using nanoindentation test. Maximum applied load, loading (unloading) rate, and hold time at maximum load were varied at three levels. The effects of these testing parameters were investigated through a three-level, full factorial design of experiment. The experiments were conducted on ultrafine Al-Mg specimens that were mechanically extruded. Both longitudinal and transverse extrusion directions were examined to investigate effects of anisotropy on mechanical properties and evaluate the persistence of observed variations due to test parameters on different materials orientations. An indentation size effect (ISE) was observed demonstrating that maximum load—and thereby maximum indentation depth—can have a significant effect on values of hardness and elastic modulus. Hardness values decreased with higher loading rates, and higher rates of unloading resulted in higher values of elastic modulus (5–10 GPa increases). Strain-hardening exponent showed a decreasing trend with increasing loading rate while yield stress exhibited a consistent correlation to hardness across all studied parameters. The material exhibited very little creep during the hold period, and values of the calculated properties were not significantly altered by varying the length of the hold time. Anisotropy effect was observed, particularly in the values of yield strength. This is attributed to the preferred grain orientation due to extrusion.     

Cavitation in brittle metallic glasses – Effects of stress state and distributed weak zones

Experimental studies and atomistic simulations have shown that brittle metallic glasses fail by a cavitation mechanism whose origin has been traced to the presence of intrinsic atomic density fluctuations which give rise to weak zones with reduced yield strength. It has been shown recently through continuum analysis that the presence of these zones can lower the cavitation stress considerably under equibiaxial loading. The objective of the present work is to study the effect of the applied stress state on the cavitation behavior of such a heterogeneous plastic solid with distributed weak zones. To this end, 2D plane strain finite element simulations are performed by subjecting a unit cell containing a weak zone to different (biaxiality) stress ratios. The volume fraction and yield strength of the weak zone are varied over a wide range. The results show that unlike in a homogeneous plastic solid, the cavitation stress of the heterogeneous aggregate does not reduce appreciably as the stress ratio decreases from unity when the yield strength of the weak zone is low. It is found that a non-dimensional parameter characterizing the stress state prevailing in the weak zone and its yield properties uniquely control the cavitation stress. The nature of cavitation bifurcation may change from unstable bifurcation to the left at sufficiently low stress ratio to one involving snap cavitation at high stress ratio.     

Scaling relationships in conical indentation of elastic-perfectly plastic solids

Using dimensional analysis and finite element calculations we derive several scaling relationships for conical indentation into elastic-perfectly plastic solids. These scaling relationships provide new insights into the shape of indentation curves and form the basis for understanding indentation measurements, including nano- and micro-indentation techniques. They are also helpful as a guide to numerical and finite element calculations of conical indentation problems. Finally, the scaling relationships are used to reveal the general relationships between hardness, contact area, initial unloading slope, and mechanical properties of solids.